Strategies Of China — COVID-19
Some strategies are proving more effective than others in containing the pandemic: pro-active efforts to track down and isolate the infected, access to basic, affordable public health care, and clear, reassuring messaging from leaders. East Asia’s experience with the 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which also originated in China, has likewise helped.
COVID-19’s impact around the globe
- Italy’s death toll increases by 475 in one day, the largest daily increase yet recorded by any country. Meanwhile, lockdown becomes more difficult to bear.
- The US-Canada border will close to non-essential travel.
- Kazakhstan will lockdown its two largest cities.
No new local cases in China
For the first time since the outbreak began, all new cases Thursday came from outside China. The country’s 3,245 deaths still comprise one-third of the virus’ global toll and if the numbers hold, it could be a sign that country has turned a corner.
Aman stands next to a cart in a snow-covered field in Inner Mongolia, trying to carve a path. A drone hovers in the distance and a voice calls out: “Uncle, why are you still going out without a face mask? Don’t laugh. Hurry up and get in your car and go home.”
As the man drives away, glancing back, the drone follows him and the voice warns: “Don’t come outside if you don’t have to. Rest at home … What are you looking at? Go!”
Chinese officials in rural areas are creatively using drones to make sure local residents don‘t gather together without wearing masks during the nationwide battle against the coronavirus.
Banners have sprung up telling residents what they should and should not do.
“Tighter control over individuals, press controls, using hi-tech methods to keep track of people — these kinds of things will be exacerbated after the epidemic,”
Countries studying China’s approach would need to consider how it has upended nearly every corner of Chinese society.
The economy has ground to a near standstill, and many small businesses say they may soon run out of cash. Patients with critical illnesses are struggling to find timely care, and some have died. Hundreds of millions of people have been placed in some form of isolation. As of Friday, about 827,000 people remained under quarantine in Beijing, according to the state-run China Daily newspaper.
W.H.O. experts sent to China have also highlighted clinics that could diagnose hundreds of cases a day with CT scans and laboratory tests, and the mass isolation centres in stadiums in Wuhan that separated people who had mild infections from their families.
Medical experts say that there have been few signs that the government has aggressively tested for the coronavirus outside of medical facilities in Hubei. Until they broaden the scope of testing, experts say, it will be impossible to determine the true extent of the epidemic because those who have mild infections might not see a doctor.
Software that reads CT lung scans had been used primarily to detect cancer. Now it’s retooled to look for signs of pneumonia caused by coronavirus.
The software in use at Zhongnan was created by Beijing startup Infervision, which says its Covid-19 tool has been deployed at 34 hospitals in China and used to review more than 32,000 cases.
Chinese supercomputer uses artificial intelligence to diagnose patients from chest scans
it would take an experienced doctor about 15 minutes to go through the 300 images generated by a CT scan, while the AI did the job in about 10 seconds.
An international team of researchers, including John Brownstein from the Harvard Medical School, are collaborating to mine the internet to get a heads up on potential problem areas around the world. The program is specially designed to look for mentions of specific symptoms, like respiratory problems and fever, from geographical areas where doctors have reported potential cases.
By using natural language processing, the AI is able to disseminate between posts discussing the news and those posts that appear to be someone complaining about how they are feeling.
Since the first report of coronavirus (COVID-19) in Wuhan, China, it has spread to at least 100 other countries. As China initiated its response to the virus, it leaned on its strong technology sector and specifically artificial intelligence (AI), data science, and technology to track and fight the pandemic while tech leaders, including Alibaba, Baidu, Huawei and more accelerated their company’s healthcare initiatives. As a result, tech startups are integrally involved with clinicians, academics, and government entities around the world to activate technology as the virus continues to spread to many other countries. Here are 10 ways artificial intelligence, data science, and technology are being used to manage and fight COVID-19.
